Libous' son's hiring probed

James M. Odato

Published 10:26 pm, Sunday, June 29, 2014

A federal grand jury in White Plains has been calling in witnesses as it probes the matter of the employment of state Sen. Tom Libous' son at a law firm assigned to an Albany lobbying group close to the senator, according to interviews with people involved or briefed about the matter.

The investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District may conclude soon, one of the individuals said. Federal officials declined to comment.

The grand jury's work relates to a concern that was brought to the attention of the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics two years ago by former Binghamton Mayor Matt Ryan. The Democrat told reporters he wrote to JCOPE requesting it look into statements made by former attorney Anthony Mangone in a federal trial in Westchester County about the family of Libous, a Binghamton Republican.

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Mangone, a felon, said the lawmaker had asked him to give Libous' son Matthew a position in Mangone's law firm about eight years ago. Mangone said that a senator would help the law firm get business, and testified that Libous wanted his son to be paid $150,000 and be provided a car, which the firm did. Mangone said the firm received $50,000 from the Albany lobbying firm Ostroff, Hiffa & Associates, and Matthew Libous was in charge of the Hiffa account.

After the conviction of a former Yonkers GOP chairman and a former Yonkers councilwoman in which the federal prosecutors relied on Mangone's testimony, Libous commented about the case. "There was no quid pro quo arrangement with the law firm," he said. "I made no promises and nothing transpired between me or my office and the firm."

Fred Hiffa, a partner in the Ostroff/Hiffa lobbying firm, has been friends with Libous for more than two decades and once worked for him. Hiffa also was the first deputy commissioner of the state Department of Transportation. Since breaking up his firm at the end of 2013, he became managing director for Park Strategies, a big lobbying operation headed by former U.S. Sen. Alfonse M. D'Amato. Hiffa did not return a call left at his office.

Steven Greenberg, a spokesman for the former Hiffa/Ostroff firm, has stated that there were no ties between the firm's work with Matthew Libous in 2006 and lobbying contracts the lobbyists secured from clients in Sen. Libous' district. Libous did not return a call.

Mangone said he was not called in to discuss his earlier testimony. But he added that a federal agent could simply present that testimony to a grand jury.

An exit, a promotion

Even as Director of Operations Howard Glaser was exiting last week, the Cuomo administration was putting out feelers to hire a first-ever chief risk officer, a position that administration officials say would help state agencies plug vulnerabilities that allow for fraud, abuse and waste of taxpayer funds, or that expose the state to financial or insurance risks.

A job posting does not identify the salary for the new post. But the executive chamber seeks a candidate that can provide statewide vision and leadership for developing and implementing a state-of-the-art risk management system to improve internal control systems for state agencies.

The new administrator may end up reporting to Fran Reiter, who has been Glaser's executive deputy. She will likely rise in Gov. Andrew Cuomo's executive team as a result of his departure.

The state budget contains $350,000 for the new risk management office, which could have three full-time employees.

He said if a gambling resort goes up in Orange County — where five companies have made six proposals for casinos between Newburgh and Tuxedo — there is no reason for a Catskills casino. "If you put one in Orange County, it's a block. There would be no incentive to put anything west or north of the county," Sussman said.

His group, which he said included a few hundred people, will take out a full-page ad in the Middletown Times Herald next week to begin its crusade in earnest. Sussman said Sullivan and Ulster counties, which deserve a chance at the economic development projects, have been working for casinos for decades, and Orange County developers would snuff out the opportunities sought in the Catskills.

Sussman, a lawyer, ran as a Democrat in 2001 and lost his bid to become Orange County executive. Recently, he successfully sued the county to prevent the sale of a public nursing home.

Sussman also headed the anti-poverty organization called the Newburgh Community Action Group, and doesn't view a casino near that distressed city (proposed by Saratoga Harness and Rush Street Gaming) as a good thing for poor people. However, he views the southern Orange County projects proposed — in Woodbury (Caesars/Flaum Management), Blooming Grove (Penn National Gaming/Cordish Companies) and Tuxedo (Genting) — as particularly objectionable.